Although world population reached the number of 6 000 000 000 people few years ago, infertility and subfertility are increasing problems for developed countries. Subfertility affects today up to 14% of couples in Western societies. The prevalence of unexplained infertility among subfertile couples varies between 8 and 31%. Beside the well-known demographic and economic problems resulting from decreasing population size in first world countries, infertility is also a marked problem in developing countries although population size is increasing rapidly there. Fertility is affected by many different cultural, environmental and socioeconomic factors, especially in developing countries, where poverty and infections are common place. Thus, environmental factors play a major role in infertility in Africa or South America. Beside effects on the population structure infertility represents first of all an individual problem for the affected couples. Especially for the infertile women childlessness is an enormous psychological burden often associated with divorce, low social status and bad self perception because motherhood is still an important part of female sex role identity. Beside worse nutritional and social conditions, various disorders are associated with infertility. The most common cause of anovulatory infertility however, is the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome - PCOS. Unfortunately up to now the great majority of epidemiologic studies considered the prevalence of PCOS in western societies or first world countries exclusively, the epidemiology of PCOS and the special problems of affected women in developing countries are more or less unknown or not documented sufficiently. This is also true of the association between socio-biological factors and PCOS in other than first world countries. Diseases are never experienced directly. Illnesses, cultural constructs of diseases are what people experience the symptom perception depends on belief and knowledge and varies with both space and time.

Previous projects:

• Anthropological aspects of infertility

• Stress and female infertility

Current project:

• Childlessness and health related quality of life during old age